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Liquidators/Military Efforts
[[Ликвидаторы / Военные усилия]], [[Liquidators / militärischen Anstrengungen]] The liquidators were many groups of people recruited by the army to recduce the effects of the Chernobyl accident. Most died directly or indirectly less than 10 years after the accident. Military Efforts Initially it was the Soviet Army that was called in to help with the accident. Hundreds of soldiers were deployed at the power plant shortly following the explosion, told to bury the reactor. Many were strapped into leaded gear and face masks, sent up onto the roofs of the 3rd and 4th reactors, and told to dump the ejected waste back into the still-burning core. Originally the idea had been to send robots up to do this work, but the intense levels of radiation destroyed the circuits of the machines. The army had no choice but to send in people to do this lethal work. Today, more than 90% of those soldiers who worked on the roofs have died of medical complications caused by their exposure to radiation. As well as climbing onto the roof and man-handling the deadly waste, soldiers who flew helicopters were ordered to fly over the reactor, directly in the path of escaping radionuclides, and drop sand, dolomite and lead onto the inferno to bury it. Most of these pilots died within days following. Liquidators 650.000 young men were drafted over a 2-year period after the accident. These men came to be known as "liquidators" and "bio-robots." Not one of them was given sufficient protection from the radiation. The best-protected ones wore thin, clear-plastic suits over their army fatigues and had minimal-protection respirators. The worst protected recieved nothing, and went home to their families in the same contaminated clothing that they'd worked in. Cleanup Work Many of these people were sent into villages after the residents were evacuated to clean the houses of fallout. Some had high-pressure hoses, others were forced to scrub with their hands. This was not effective, as the radiation was not just in the dust on the houses, it had seeped into the walls because wood absorbs radioactive particles like a sponge. Waste Removal Another part of their efforts was the razing of trees in the forests and the digging up of topsoil. They used ordinary shovels to do this. Once the topsoil was torn up, a special film was sprayed over the light bottom-soil to keep it from moving. The grass was rolled up like large rugs, packed in celophane and buried with the trees in the ground. Villages More than 70 villages in contaminated areas suffered the same fate: the buildings were picked up off their foundations with large cranes and buried. If cranes were not available at the time, many were simply demolished and then buried or bulldozed into the pits. Gallery Chernobyl 31.JPG Chernobyl 29.JPG chernobyl 44.JPG chernobyl 45.JPG|Sign reads "Forbidden Zone" chernobyl 53.JPG chernobyl_liquidators_monument_10.jpg|Monument at the power station to the liquidators and firefighters who helped reduce the effects of the catastrophe. explosion 3.JPG chernobyl-25th-anniversary-liquidators-firefighters-helicopter_35070_600x450.jpg|A view of the destroyed reactor from a helicopter. chernobyl-25th-anniversary-liquidators-firefighters-baby_35069_600x450.jpg|A liquidator, rescuing an infant from an abandoned village. chernobyl-25th-anniversary-liquidators-firefighters-suiting-up_35077_600x450.jpg|Suiting up for a trip to the roof. These are ordinary army uniforms with lead tied on. chernobyl-500-14.jpg|Taking measurements on the site of the accident. chernobyl-500-27.jpg|Draftees in what will become one of the vast machinery graveyards. chernobyl-500-37.jpg|A soldier poses in front of the reactor. This picture would have been sent to his family back home. chernobyl-500-38.jpg|Liquidators in the red forest. chernobyl-500-39.jpg|Another photo of the vehicle graveyard. chernobyl-500-41.jpg|Measuring radiation levels of the truck. chernobyl-500-48.jpg|Soldiers in Pripyat. chernobyl-500-50.jpg|This truck is spraying the trees with water to keep down radioactive dust. chernobyl-500-51.jpg|Washing off buildings in Pripyat, after the evacuation. chernobyl-500-53.jpg|Measuring this vehicle, to see if it needs to be left behind as waste. chernobyl-500-54.jpg|A helicopter surveys the scene from above. Category:Content Category:Pages with Russian duplicates Category:Pages with missing sources